We're cleaning out our storage room, and I found this doodle in one of the boxes (click to see close-ups). I was 15 when I did it. The top shows our family in the house across from the Luce Center (notice the garage/dojo and Stu's and my attic room). In this picture, we have (L-R) Duncan, Dad, Me, Stuart, Mom, and Eric, plus praying mantises and cats Simone and Maggie. Notice Duncan's long hair and his and Eric's muscles.

The back apparently depicts each of us in our "trademark" (to me, when I was 15) activities. Duncan working out (sweating) and doing martial arts (confident); Dad driving for Airborne Express (neutral) and drawing a cartoon (happy); Mom using the computer (happy) and singing/being with children (really happy); Me listening to music while reading with a cat (hey, I don't just enjoy one or two things) and singing/doing art/fashion design/being with children; Eric singing and writing (in a journal?) while sitting on his couch; and Stuart playing baseball (focused) and laying on the couch with the remote, watching TV (also focused).


Caspian leads prayer now! He says, "Jesus...thank you for food...love Jesus!...amen!"

He was playing on our electric keyboard tonight and specifically asked that the instrumentation be changed to "trumpet" then "guitar"...craziness! He is so freakin' smart, it blows my mind.

Our attempt to curb his "hit people" phase seems to be going well, by the grace of God. He still talks about Star Trek, but hasn't seen any for a couple of weeks. However, he did name his Cabbage Patch doll (at grandma's) "Kahn." Seriously.

I am so proud of him. He is very, very consistent about saying "Yes, please" and "No, thank you" all the time. What a blessing he is!



Recently, he's been practicing his "surprised" face, as well as "mad" and "sad" and "happy." He cracked me up on Monday, when he ran down the hall at my mom's, toward the mirror, came to a screeching halt, and gaped in surprise (hand gesture included). He always adds, "Surprise!" aloud just in case you didn't get which emotion he was demonstrating.

New obsession: potty books (Once Upon A Potty and 1, 2, 3, Pee!). Oh. My. Goodness. If he were only as willing to sit on the toilet as he was to talk about it...whew. He even tells us when he's about to go; he just won't sit on the toilet. We have got to get him a training potty...

Caspian had his 2 year check-up on Monday. He was 33½" tall and 27½ lbs. The four things we're going to start working on are self-dress, somersaulting, pedaling, and potty books. Caspian knows how to get his clothes on and off, he just isn't coordinated enough to do it. I've started letting him do more and try to do it alone first. He frequently "v"s on the bed (up on hands and feet, tush in the air, head down), but I don't let him push past "v" because it's always on the edge of the bed. We did some practice somersaults down the center of the bed this morning, and he cracked up. He doesn't have any pedaling opportunities, but maybe we'll find something at Goodwill or OUAC. He's mentioned going on the potty before, but he freaks out if we try to follow up on his request. He's very aware of his p*n*s and knows that boys have them (and this morning asked "mommy pee?" since I'm not a boy and don't have one — oh, my). His ped said we can start reading potty books to get him used to the idea of going on the toilet.

Star Trek is officially off limits at our house now. Caspian goes around shooting people with a "phaser" (stick, phone, finger, etc.) all the time. We explained that it's not okay to shoot people, unless they're "bad guys" but he's too young to grasp that. In the last couple of days, too, he's starting saying, "Hit people." That was the last straw for me. That is not the sweet, gentle boy I know. We agreed to completely censor everything he watches, even when we'd really like to watch Battlestar Galactica over dinner. Thank goodness for the Olympics — something for the whole family! Caspian is fascinated by gymnastics and swimming.

One of his newest occupations is driving his car. I was letting him play in an empty MK shipping box while I put away laundry, and he said it was his car. He was making car noises (below) and trying to put a key in the side of the box.

I cut a hole for the key to stick in, drew some console features, and gave him a round lid to use as a steering wheel (turning SO fast, below). The funniest thing was that after I was done, he said, "A C!" He kept saying it, so I drew an air vent and knob and labeled it "A/C"...and he was happy. He takes a drive at least once every afternoon now. See my laundry? :)


He's memorizing more and more books — most recently, Color Crunch. I let him finish the ends of rhyming lines or say a single line on a page.

He got to see Uncle Stuart again on Monday. Whenever we see a plane while we're playing on the playground, Caspian says, "Plane! Stuart. Fly plane. Happy [to] see ya!" We have no idea where he came up with "happy to see ya," but he says it every time he thinks of seeing Stuart.

I finally posted my Seminar pictures, but they haven't been captioned yet. Speaking of Mary Kay, this past week was my 7th $1,000 week! It always seems to happen when I have three classes in one week....

For 08-08-08, the Cre8tive Group had a big Chinese/Olympic-themed celebration. We even had our own competitive events with prizes: the triathlon, the saltine contest (first to eat 6 in under a minute), and the cinnamon contest (eat a heaping tablespoon at once, no time limit). The triathlon consisted of corn hole (below), Wii Summer Olympics hammer throw, and an obstacle course. The obstacle course was shooting a basketball basket, running to the jungle gym, climbing across the monkey bars, sliding down the slide, doing four spins on a dizzy bat, running back through cones, and shooting another basket. Charlie and I had the top two scores on the hammer throw, and we both got admirable times on the obstacle course. Two people (at least) fell off the monkey bars — one of whom scored some hairline fractures in her arm. The Cre8tive Group's cake for the event ended up on the Cake Wrecks blog, which is awesome (if you want to laugh until you cry, you only have to read Cake Wrecks' May blog posts). All in all, it was a very fun night. Thanks, Chad!